Thoughts from the day-job desk pt. 2
Is this becoming a trend? Perhaps.
Again, as I only have twenty minutes to throw down, forgive me if this is stilted or boring (really, the same potential pitfalls of having two hours).
I think today I want to put down a few thoughts on a) nature and b) having kids (gees, what else is new, right?).
I went camping on the weekend and it’s really remarkable what happens when you spend a bunch of hours, straight, outside. (And I’m probably going to use the generic “we” for a bit, so prepare yourself or peace out). We spend so much time inside—literally, our lives are built around being inside—so when we do get outside, and especially when we do so for 12, 24, 36, 48 or more hours, the body just changes. It feels different. More real? More alive—not in an invigorating, “oo I feel alive,” kind of way (though that too), but more of a, this organism “the body” is living, just as this tree and plant are.
Instead of feeling like life is this deeply layered, task-full, always busy pit of things and stuff and action, everything becomes more shallow, more simple; life is seen and felt on a very minimal spectrum: sleeping, eating, being. Instead of being stuck up to my neck in the aforementioned pit, I feel like I’m standing firmly on the thinly layered ground of ‘real life’, ‘life in nature’.
The shame about this post is that I’ll likely not have time to thoroughly read over it and remove more of the mystical hippy-sounding phrases, because truly that’s not what I mean to express. I’m not enthralled by mother nature after spending two nights in a tent. But I am more appreciative of what can be gained by stepping away from computers, phones, the internet, my iCal…and getting outside.
Part two, as promised, will be about kids, or more accurately babies, because…my cousin just had one!
I’m sure many people have had this experience, but all of a sudden it’s like this baby is the cutest most awesome baby ever—more than any baby that came before. I never really cared about looking at photos of other people’s babies, nor even seeing other babies in person. But now, after receiving only two photos via text (text! What a word we live in [Yes I know I derided the over-connectedness of inside life just lines ago, but I can also see the bright side]), I cannot stop looking at this baby. It is amazing. And only a few hours ago it was living under someone else’s skin. How. Is That. Possible!? With no religious-reference intended, it is miraculous.
And now, for many years, my cousin and his wife will just have another person living in their house; using the bathroom (this is something I find fascinating…imagine all of a sudden wanting to use the bathroom and, wait—what? Someone else is in there…oh yeah, it’s our kid! Living their life independently, moving their bowels. Again, miraculous); running around upstairs; having thoughts… Think about it. It’s nuts!
And on that note, I’m done. Time to start my six-hour work day, which will no doubt be punctuated by looking at pictures on my phone every twenty minutes. Now I understand why people put pictures of their kids on their desks—saves time and batteries.
